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Saved: December 29th 2014
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Off from Queenstown via Wanaka to spend some time at Puzzling World, somewhere that Kelly went to 5 years ago and loved. Great fun with its Hologram Hall, Hall of Following Faces, Tilted Room where the ball ran upwards on the snooker table and the monorail ran from floor to ceiling, the Illusion Room where you could look tiny in one corner and giant sized in the opposite corner, the same effects being used in Lord of the Rings (which was of course filmed in NZ and Terry has insisted we look at many sites used in the films although I have never actually watched any of them and he has - well didn't want him sulking did we?) You will be interested to know Kelly that they now have a new room calle Sculptillusion Room which only opened the day we got there!
Arrived in Franz Josef village, the gateway to Glacier Country late in the evening but booked for the Glacier Walk onto Fox Glacier the next afternoon. Kitted out in our jackets, with ice sticks, boots and crampons we set off for a 4 hour walk onto the Glacier. Walking for an hour uphill through streams and
The Tilting Room at Puzzling World
By the way the levels on the wall behind are actually straight. rock falls we climbed until we eventually reached the ice and being the oldest in the group we were exhausted. Then onto and across the Glacier, stepping over ravines in the ice. It was beautiful. We were taken down to look into passages and caverns where the ice was bright blue. We drank water from a spring in the ice. We realised this was likely to be the only time we would be fit enough to experience this and after we walked back down to the bottom we literally hobbled into the closest pub to get over it, where for once Terry actually drank the beer without moaning.
Drove along the west coast to Punakaiki, one of the top 10 scenic drives in the world according to Lonely Planet and it didn't disappoint. Walked out to see the Pancake Rocks which Punakaiki is famous for and spotting what we thought was a Kiwi we excitedly turned into Bill Oddie and snapped loads of photos before someone came along and told us it was another flightless bird called a Weka. What a disappointment.
Our last proper day in the South Island and we drove onwards coming to stop in
a beach area of Nelson called Tahunanui. On the way we stopped and walked New Zealand's longest swingbridge across Buller Gorge, at 110 metres long over the raging river where there were still the remains of gold miners cottages. After the glacier it was a doddle! I have to say following that walk my feet are still bandaged six days later with blisters under my toe nails (ouch).
Then off to Picton to catch the Inter-Islander Ferry across to the North Island.
Arrived in Wellington on the Saturday night and boy was it lively. Good evening spent at the Bangalore Polo Club drinking and eating peanuts whilst they encouraged everyone to fling the shells onto the floor. This horrified me and I had an urge to get their hoover out and clean up for them.
Well we arrived in Rotorua. We were told we would know when we arrived by the smell and they were spot on. Smell of rotten eggs all over the town. We drove through a desert , past Huka Falls and steamfields to get here. Random smoke pouring out of the ground from boiling water far below the surface – surreal. There were
even steam vents coming up in the middle of the Botanical Gardens as I wandered around. It's a very odd thing to see.
We visited Whakarewarewa, a living thermal village still inhabited by the Maori people. Our guide showed us around the village with the houses surrounded by steam vents, geysers, boiling mud pools and hot springs. In the village they still did some of their cooking in thermal ovens in the ground and boiled vegetables in the boiling pools. Terry was asked to stamp on the ground which echoed and we were told that this was where the earth’s crust was at its thinnest at just 20 cm. Some of the villagers demonstrated some of their traditional dances including the Huka and were taught the Maori version of the Hokey Cokey. We were astounded that people could live surrounded by all this thermal activity and were told one family had to move a month ago when a steam vent suddenly appeared in the middle of their kitchen.
Then we went onto Waimangu Volcanic Valley where we wandered amongst steam vents and bubbling pools before a boat trip out to see volcanoes and geysers.
We are now
Glacier climbing
We made it but we were totally knackered off to see Terry’s relations who live in Auckland so that should be very exciting – I think there will a lot to talk about especially if they anything like him.
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